This game needs to somehow explain to new players

That the cloak doesn't make you totally invisible. So many times I've seen a stalker infiltrator running past a group of guys, and without worry I'll take my time in aiming and taking him down. These lower BR players feel that we can't see them, so they stop worrying about anyone catching them and it makes it that much easier to kill them. Not to mention the fact that whenever I use the recursion stat tracker a lot of these kills will result in an almost immediate "RAGE QUIT" notification. Feels bad man.

Also shooting a tank with a Carbine will NOT work

And the poor low BRs that run at a MAX while shooting it with a pistol.

And that you can't shoot through spawn shields so don't stand in front of them because the defenders can

I had a BR9 do this to my Lightning recently, charging right at me in the open. I sent him a tell saying it doesn't work; didn't get a response.

Yep. Pretty much include a written tutorial or something that pops up when the player selects the infiltrator. Also remind them to keep off of the ground as much as possible when playing LA. Little notifications here and there that will really help with the new player experience.

Dying is a great way of learning for some people, I died a ******** as I learned what would get me killed easily (obviously) and how to avoid that. But a lot of newer players don't have this attitude, and maybe tips that will keep them from dying like idiots will help with new player retention.

Yeah I always send low BRs messages and tips like that. A BR 5 infiltrator tried knifing me and I reacted quick enough to jump away and kill him quickly. I sent him a tell after to put a few rounds with his default sniper or enough rounds with the beamer to break my shield before knifing me. Usually they don't even know how to respond or maybe he ragequit

I send a /t to new players as well if I kill them doing something stupid. I have never got a response, not a single one. I always say something like "You new? need any help send me a tell" "You can respond with /r"

The game doesn't even explain how to send in game messages to other players. It is possible that they simply didn't see the message in the info feed but I don't believe this to be the case in the literally hundred or so messages I have sent or maybe they are too frustrated to want to talk to me


The list of silly things new players do is astounding some of it not their fault, it's simply the game not explaining it properly.

Another example, shield gens. It is reasonable to think that do destroy them you need to shoot or use explosives on them rather than holding E to over load them.

I had this same issue when I first started, I was shooting the gen until some helpful VS player came along said what I should have been doing

It's mostly that prople on medium+ will see you, and low won't. So sometime you just take a chance and go run in the middle of a pack. 1/2 times, nobody notices you.

Also, pestering ESFs with your primary while alone is a great way to get killed.

And standing still for more than a few seconds.

And trying to run in the road.

And shooting at enemy tanks with your small arms.

And trying to rush MAXes.

And not turning around when you are being shot at from behind.

You know what, mentorship style things would be really great for this game. Or give them a bit of text saying "your weapon will not damage this unit" or "revive this guy, people like getting revived "

You do realize pros do this as well, right? Wrel, for example, often runs right through a room of hostiles while cloaked and no one shoots at him. It's not about that infiltrator being a noob it's about whether or not everyone is paying attention or playing on medium or better graphics settings.

The reason is perspective. They're probably playing on low where it might as well be invisible.
The next patch however will make EVERY setting look identical to Ultra. ....which ironically SOE is spinning as a "Cloaking improvement". ....How many times have we seen SOE redefine a massive nerf as an "Improvement"? They're pretty much the most well known publisher in the world for that kind of perspective actually.

Infiltrator cloak being harder to see on lower settings is obviously not working as intended. It's not a nerf to normalize it.

I wouldn't expect a low BR to know how to response.

For me, I have a sub-par, computer, so I played on customly low settings. When I first started the game, when I would cloak, I could not see my self. I would also see enemy infils appear out of thin air while stationary. This led me to believe that cloakers WERE invisible. Once I got into the forums, I realized that cloak appeared differently on different settings, and now I know.

SOE needs to put a big long tutorial together..

they asked for all of this input here: https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/help-us-help-new-players.198522/


I like Z1967's idea of an in-game pop-up that tells you that your weapon doesn't have any effect on the target that you are shooting at.
Pistol shots at a MAX or tank.. new players don't know this.
Even at BR35 they don't know what's in the game.. I had a BR35 accuse me of hacking, because I could "auto detect" enemies near my tank.. well. Proxy Radar.. he never heard of it before..

then again, most people don't want to learn, they don't want to read, they don't want to spend time watching youtube.. they just want to jump into the action, call of doodo style..

Any actual documentation at all is a good thing.
There is the Planetside 2 Wiki, but a lot of that is totally outdated, and they DEVs don't generate content for it.

And, of course not, why would DEVs take the time to document their own game so that players could read the documentation in their spare time off-line?

That would be silly. It might do something stupid like boosting player retention and easing the access to the game expanding their number of players in general.

The Devs know what they are doing, just leave the masses out there getting slaughtered with next to no idea what is going on so that the higher BR players can have fun and laugh at the new players.
Is that what good gaming is all about?

Sure seems like that these days in so many MMO's.

Pistols definitely damage MAXes. There is no damage type that MAXes are immune to.

I'm not sure this popup is needed though. You already get hit indicators on targets that take damage. It should become pretty apparent by the time you get a few BR's that if you don't see/hear hit indicators, you don't do damage.

Oh well, duh me! I never knew this! and I've been playing over a year now.. see my sig

I always thought when I don't get a hit detection, that either my computer was crap (which it was), lag was doing me in, or the game just didn't work since the latest patch..
I honestly didn't know that you get a hit detection only if you do damage to the target.. are you sure about this?
tells you right there that a long, loooong tutorial is badly needed

I was using the word "you" as a third person / impersonal pronoun, I didn't mean you specifically. So your tirade is rather misplaced.